


Waiting

by sugarandspace



Series: 3B fics [12]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt, M/M, Magnus Bane's Omamori Charm, Post-Episode: s03e15 To the Night Children, Unconsciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-30 00:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18304793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarandspace/pseuds/sugarandspace
Summary: A hopeful, naive part of Alec had hoped that Catarina would arrive and use her powers and everything would be okay again.





	Waiting

Catarina arrived fast, a Shadowhunter escorting her to Alec’s office after she’d portalled outside of the Institute. The normally calm warlock appeared shocked as she saw Magnus trashing on the floor.

“What happened?” She asked, landing on her knees next to Alec on the floor, her hands spread in the air over Magnus’ body, light blue magic scanning him.

“I-” Alec started but found his words stuck in his throat. He cleared his voice and tried to focus. “We were talking and he collapsed. He said something but it was not in a language that I know. His nose started to bleed, and then he was coughing up blood too.”

“His body is resisting the unfamiliar magic,” Catarina said, placing her hands on Magnus’ chest. “How long has he had symptoms?”

“Symptoms?” Alec asked dumbly. Magnus hadn’t had any symptoms before this.

“Yes,” Catarina said, pushing magic into her friend, but it looked like it was only making the trashing more violent. “Headaches, nosebleeds, nausea - symptoms like that.”

“I don’t know,” Alec said helplessly. “He hasn’t told me.”

“Magnus,” she said, her tone chastising before she turned her attention to Alec. “I have no other choice but to get the magic out of him. His body is resisting it to the point that it’s impossible to fix the situation and have him keep the powers.”

“Will that save him?”

“It depends on how much damage has already happened,” Catarina said, her words making Alec’s panic spike up. A hopeful, naive part of him had hoped that Catarina would arrive and use her powers and everything would be okay again. “But if I don’t remove Lorenzo’s magic it’s only going to get worse.”

Alec nodded, watching as instead of pushing her magic into Magnus’ body, it started to look like Catarina was pulling something from it. Wisps of yellow magic rose from Magnus’ chest, his back arching up in the process. The trashing stopped, and as the last bits of magic left the body and disappeared into the air, Magnus’ body went completely slack. 

Alec’s hands flew to Magnus’ neck immediately, fingers searching for a pulse that he found. The pulse was weak but it was there, and Alec sighed from relief.

“When will he wake up?” Alec asked, looking at Catarina.

“There’s no way of knowing for sure,” Catarina said, turning her attention from Magnus to Alec. There was something in her expression that made Alec feel wary. “Since his state was caused by an unfamiliar magic, healing him with my magic isn’t an option and we need to let his body recover the mundane way. He’ll wake up when he’s healed enough. That is -”

“What?” Alec asked, hating the way Catarina trailed off and turned her attention back to Magnus, her expression solemn. It made dread crawl up Alec’s spine. 

“That is, if he’ll wake up,” Catarina finished.

“No,” Alec said, his voice weak as he shook his head in denial. “No, no, no. He has to wake up. Has to. He can’t- he can’t  _ die _ Catarina.”

“I know,” Catarina said, turning to look at Alec again. And Alec knew that she  _ did  _ know, was one of the few who actually could understand how Alec was feeling.

They were quiet for a while after that, their attention on Magnus. A million thoughts were going through Alec’s mind, and he knew that it was probably the same for Catarina. 

“We need to take him to my room,” Alec said eventually, realising that lying on the floor couldn’t be comfortable - no matter if Magnus could actually feel it or not.  

“He’ll need mundane medicine, some fluids and a heart monitor, in case…” Catarina trailed off and Alec understood. He didn’t want to hear the words  _ in case something goes wrong  _ either.  

“The Institute infirmary then,” Alec said, knowing that a mundane hospital was out of question. Before Catarina could say anything, Alec slipped his arms underneath Magnus’ body, one arm supporting his back and  the other hooked under his knees. He lifted his boyfriend up from the ground, adjusting his arms when he stood up. Magnus head hung to the side unnaturally, and Alec shifted so that it was resting against his shoulder instead. The familiar feeling of soft breaths against his neck brought tears to Alec’s eyes when he thought back to the same morning when he had woken up with the warlock draped over his body, peacefully asleep as Alec had slipped out from under him so that he could bring Magnus breakfast to bed. 

That morning felt so far away right now. 

Catarina walked in front of him, opening the office door to Alec as they started to walk towards the infirmary. There was a small crowd of Shadowhunters lingering outside of the office, everyone curious to know what had happened in Alec’s office that had caused him to call for a medic and for Catarina Loss to enter the room a moment later. Alec paid no mind to them, walking past them briskly and ignoring the stares he could feel on his back.

When they got to the infirmary, Alec found a room that wasn’t occupied and laid Magnus down on the bed, Catarina walking to the other side of it. She waved her hand and the blood was gone from Magnus’ face, the magic taking away the slightly smudged makeup as well. Another wave and the hair that had been sticking up to every direction after all the trashing Magnus’ body has gone through on the floor was falling down his forehead as straight strands that Alec knew to be soft to the touch. 

“I thought you said he couldn’t handle magic?” Alec asked. 

“This kind of magic is okay because it’s only superficial. I can’t put any magic inside his body,” Catarina explained and Alec nodded in understanding.

Catarina waved her hands for the third time, the bloody clothes Magnus was wearing replaced by comfortable ones, a blanket finding is way over Magnus’ body. The clothes he was wearing before appeared into the small table next to the bed, neatly folded. 

“What can I do?” Alec asked, watching as Catarina started hooking Magnus into an IV. He wanted to help, to do something useful.

“I’m afraid there isn’t anything we can do,” Catarina said. “After I connect him into the heart monitor and start the IV for fluids, all we can do is wait, give his body time to recover on its own.”

And that’s what Alec did.

He took a chair from the corner of the room and moved it next to Magnus’ bed, taking Magnus’ hand that wasn’t connected to the IV and held it. Instead of bringing comfort it felt wrong, because unlike usually when Alec reached for Magnus’ hand, this time Magnus wasn’t returning the hold. It only eased Alec’s mind when he slid his hand a bit further, two of his fingers resting over the veins on Magnus’ wrist, feeling the steady beat of Magnus’ heart. 

Catarina stayed for a while, first doing what she could to help Magnus and then just sitting on the other side of the end. They didn’t talk, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable either. They both had too much in their minds to focus on polite small talk.

After a while Catarina had to leave, saying that she had pick Madzie up from a babysitter. She promised to come back later, and Alec promised to let her know if anything changed while she was gone. 

Alec wasn’t really surprised when only a couple minutes after Catarina had left, his sister entered the room.

“How is he?” Izzy asked, laying a hand on Alec’s shoulder.

“Not great,” Alec said, keeping his eyes on Magnus. “Catarina took Lorenzo’s magic from his body but he’s still healing from the damage it caused.”

“And how are you feeling?” Izzy asked, her hand squeezing Alec’s shoulder gently. 

Alec didn’t have the answer for that, his words getting stuck in his throat. He settled for shaking his head and taking in a shuddering breath.

“Alec…”

“She said- ” Alec said but his voice broke before he could continue. “Catarina said that he might not wake up.”

Alec heard Izzy’s shocked gasp but he didn’t look at her, instead he fixed his eyes to the floor as the tears started to fall. He didn’t try to keep them in, knowing that Izzy wouldn’t judge him. 

“Oh Alec…” Izzy put her hand on Alec’s hair, combing through it as Alec leaned to her hip. It was clear that Izzy didn’t have words for the situation either, but Alec didn’t mind. He was pretty sure that the only words that could bring him comfort right now would be ones coming from the mouth of his boyfriend. 

Alec calmed down after a while, a numb feeling replacing pain. He was desperate for Magnus to wake up, and felt helpless when there wasn’t anything he could do to help him. 

Izzy stayed with him for a while, their silence only broken by the steady beeping of the heart monitor. Eventually she got a message, and told Alec that she needed to go.

“I can take these to get washed,” Izzy said, looking at the pile of clothes on the table. Magnus’ vest was on top of the pile, the blood stains visible. Izzy probably thought that it would be better if Alec didn’t need to keep looking at the bloody clothes.

Alec nodded, barely paying attention to what his sister had said. He looked as Izzy took the pile into her arms and started to leave the room. That’s when he remembered.

“No!” Alec said suddenly, his loud voice startling Izzy who was not expecting such a reaction. “Wait.”

Alec stood up from the chair and walked around to where Izzy was standing. He took Magnus’ pants from the bottom of the pile, his hand going for his pocket. Alec removed Magnus’ phone and sat it on the table, and then he checked the other pocket. 

He knew he would find it. 

He studied the charm in his hands, the corners and some of the details slightly worn. Alec could easily imagine Magnus running his fingers over them. 

Alec knew that Magnus carried the charm with him, had occasionally seen a peek of it when Magnus had thought that Alec wasn’t looking. It was something Magnus hadn’t told him, and Alec saw no reason to let his boyfriend know that he knew. But it warmed Alec’s heart to know that his silly little gift meant so much to Magnus, and he loved the idea that whenever Magnus went, he carried a piece of Alec with him.

“What is that?” Izzy asked, reminding Alec of where he was and what had happened.

“It’s a Japanese charm,” Alec explained, showing the item to Izzy. “It’s called Omamori and it’s supposed to bring luck and protection to its owner.”

_Luck and protection._ Magnus hadn’t had a lot of either recently. 

“Did you give it to him?” Izzy asked, guessing right. 

“I did,” Alec said, a fond smile taking over his face as he thought back to when he had given it to Magnus. “You should have seen his face. He was so surprised.”

“That was such a thoughtful gift,” Izzy said. “I can see why he carried it with him.”

“Yeah,” Alec said, trailing off as he walked next to Magnus again. He took Magnus’ hand and placed the Omamori onto it, putting the fingers into a loose fist so that it was almost like Magnus was holding it. 

Even if the charm had run out of protection and luck, it was still clearly something that brought Magnus comfort. And even thought Magnus wasn’t in a conscious state right now, Alec wanted to hope that maybe Magnus would feel the presence of the charm through his unconsciousness. Alec kissed the back of Magnus’ palm before placing the hand back on the bed. 

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” Izzy said from behind him. “Don’t worry about the Institute, we’ll keep it running. There are more important things for you to worry about.”

“Thank you Izzy,” Alec said, turning to look at his sister.

Izzy gave him a small smile and replied. “You don’t need to thank me.”  

After that she left, and Alec was alone with Magnus again, waiting.   

There might not have been much he could do, but he could be there for Magnus, whenever he would wake up. Because he was going to wake up, Alec was sure of it. There wasn’t a version of future where Magnus wasn’t alive.

Magnus was his world.  

**Author's Note:**

> Does anyone else just sometimes randomly remember 3x16 promo and feel the urge to scream? Idk how I'm going to survive the episode. 
> 
> [You can watch me scream about Shadowhunters on tumblr too!](https://www.sugarandspace.tumblr.com)


End file.
